Top Five Wednesday: Favorite Fandom Items

Today’s Top Five Wednesday covers some of my favorite things, fandom items! I love collecting merch—I still trying to figure out how I’ve yet to buy a bookish candle, and I definitely see a book sleeve in my future. I’m going to be focusing on items from a mix of mediums.

Art Work- I definitely don’t have as much artwork as some of my fellow book bloggers do (maybe a potential trip to NYC Comic Con will change this in 2018??), but I appreciate bookish and fandom artwork. Two of my favorite artists are Simini Blocker, who’s featured in the special editions of Fangirl and did an amazing collab with Uppercase for one of their planners, and Charlie Bowater, who’s done a ton of artwork for Sarah J. Maas’s books. She’s helped design the covers for A Court of Wings and Ruin and A Court of Frost and Starlight, as well as creating the map of the Southern Continent in Tower of Dawn. My own favorites include a poster of Kevin Wanda’s Carry On cover design, the fan art in the Target edition of Tower of Dawn, and a gorgeous To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets Sixteen Candles card I received from Jenny Han at Book Con.

Mugs-I’ve been trying to limit my fandom mug collection for the sake of bookshelf space (I don’t drink out of them) and watching my spending—I’m still trying to figure out how I avoided buying mugs at Dear Evan Hansen and Carousel. And I know one of these days when I walk past the Hamilton store in NYC, I’ll be buying the Aaron Burr-inspired mug. Anyways, my mug collection includes Hamilton, Waitress, Book Con, and Ron Swanson. I always have Ron’s turned out on my shelf so you can see his face!

Funkos-I started collecting Funkos a few years ago when I received Katniss and Ron Weasley as Christmas gifts. I currently have 15 Funko Pops along with a Funko keychain and pen (check out my full collection here), and while people have definitely surpassed my collection, I want to just collect figures that are very near and dear to my fangirl heart. I’d love to add the rare/highly-priced Friends ones to my collection (I think they’re long overdue for an update or second series), and I’m not-so patiently waiting for the second wave of Parks & Rec. I’ve been pretty good about not buying any Funkos since Christmas, even though I was VERY tempted to buy the Hot Topic exclusive of Tom and Jean Ralphio from Parks and Rec. However, this somewhat buying ban will surely end when I see a Luna Lovegood with her Gryffindor Hat in a store or magicially pop into my Amazon shopping cart.

Bookish Pins- My bookish pin collection really comes from all of the bookish events I’ve attended. While most of them have come from Book Con, I’ve picked a few at Barnes & Noble Teen Book Fest and Jennifer E. Smith’s signing. One of the reasons I preordered A Court of Frost and Starlight is because of the awesome Night Court enamel included in Bloomsbury’s preorder campaign.

Preorder goodies-Speaking of preorder campaigns, I feel like publishers have really stepped up their game when it comes to their amazing preorder campaigns. I’ve preordered Sarah J. Maas’s ACOMAF, ACOWAR, and Empire of Storms—my favorite preorder goodie is the ACOTAR tote bag from ACOMAF– and Leigh Bardugo’s Wonder Woman: Warbringer. My copy was signed and I received a poster of the book’s cast. Sandhya Menon is currently running an awesome preorder campaign for From Twinkle, With Love, and my most recent preorders include Siobhan Vivian’s Stay Sweet, Morgan Matson’s Save the Date, and A Court of Frost and Starlight.

I love how today’s T5W focuses on bookish things instead of books themselves because I really enjoy talking about more-so fandom content. What are some of your favorite fandom items? Share in the comments!

15 thoughts on “Top Five Wednesday: Favorite Fandom Items”

omg i have those little chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 notebooks! i buy WAY too many mugs and way too much art for someone who rents a room in someone else’s house, but i keep telling myself that one day i’ll have a house and i can put it all up haha. i loved this post!

Thank you! I’d love to have a whole room dedicated to my library & books & artwork & basically ALL the bookish things. And that’s so cool! I think I’m going to be using those notebooks for my blog scheduling and notes once I finish my current notebook

omg BLESS i always see the luna funko pop in the books a million closest to my house, it’s like a staple there! i live for the preorder goodies, lemme tell you, it’s become such a problem because i don’t necessarily need all of the things nor do i have the space for them in my already super tiny bedroom, but i want them. badly. my wallet cries every time. this was such a cute post, haley, loved it! xx

Thank you! I will get that Luna one day!! And I’m sure my wallet makes the same sound as yours when it comes to preorders haha I preordered Stay Sweet and Save the Date last week and the preorder goodies may or may not have influenced my decision 🤷🏼‍♀️ but I’ve been loving how so many preorders and first editions have been signed copies!

This was SUCH a fun post to read and pushed me to put one up later! I honestly love seeing the little knickknacks and things people put on their bookshelves; it’s so interesting to see everyone’s fandom gear 😀 Also your book buttons are super cute 🙂

Incredible list Haley! I love Funkos but always get indecisive when I’m standing at the wall trying to buy one… they never seem to have the one I really, really want. Preorder campaigns are so cool too! They are really going all out to get us to order… and succeeding!